Number One
by Psychometry
Summary: Kirito is just another player stuck in SAO. He has few friends but keeps the ones he has close. All he wants to do is protect them and leave. If only things were that easy. Kirito knows that protecting everybody will come with a price. He's willing to push to his limits and lose his humanity to get what he wants: to become Number One, the strongest. His trials are just ahead.
1. It's here that it begins

**Hello everybody! First off, yes I have decided to do a Sword Art Online fanfic. Many of you might ask why and many of you probably just assume it's because I like the show. Yes and no.**

**I do enjoy the show, but that's not the main reason I'm making this fic. The reason is because I absolutely hated the time skips and the unknowns in it. So many floors were skipped and many things were left unrevealed. I hope to delve into some of the mysteries surrounding the events that transpired in SAO.**

**I hope you guys enjoy.**

* * *

><p>"Boring…"<p>

Kirigaya Kazuto mumbled this word. Light shone through the window that he was next to. He was glad that classroom windows weren't tinted, so he could stare outside during class.

He was in his last year of Junior High. The date was July 19, 2022.

Classes were dragging on. There was a reason for him to be anxious for school to pass. At exactly midnight tonight, the first VRMMORPG (Virtual reality massively multiplayer online roleplaying game), Sword Art Online, would open. He had been in the beta test and, because of that, had gotten to pre-order the full version of the game.

Only ten thousand copies were sold. Of course, there would be more sold later, but this was just the release.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Kazuto sighed in relief. He packed his bag and stood up from his desk.

"Kazuto-chan."

He turned. A girl with long brown hair, dark gray eyes, and glasses approached him. It was Kawata Hikaru. They had been friends since their first year of middle school.

Kazuto smiled.

"Hey, Hikaru."

"Want to want walk home together? There's somewhere I want to stop on the way."

SAO didn't open until midnight, so he had some time to kill.

"Sure."

The two left Ishikawa Academy. They took their time, walking slowly.

They made their way to the middle of the city. They entered a video game store.

"A video game store?" Kazuto asked as they walked in. "I thought you weren't a gamer. You always turned down video games at sleepovers back in middle school."

"To be honest, I just thought it was embarrassing…" Hikaru smiled at him. "I'm more of an MMO gamer."

"Seriously?"

In all the years he knew her, he never saw her play an MMO or even heard her talking about it. He didn't get why that was so embarrassing that she couldn't tell her friends about it.

She giggled.

"Yup. But that's beside the point. We're here for something important."

She walked up to the counter. A man in his early twenties stood there.

"What do you need?" He asked kindly.

"I'm here for a pre-order." She reached in her skirt pocket and handed the man a receipt.

"One minute." He walked in the back.

"An MMO gamer, huh?" He said, looking around the shop. "Wait… Pre-order?"

"Yeah." She said with a smile.

"Did you…?"

Just as he started to ask, the man walked back out with a game case in hand. Hikaru gave him the money and he put it on the counter.

Kazuto looked at it.

The title clearly read "Sword Art Online" and the picture on the front was one of Aincrad, the giant floating castle that the game took place in.

"I bet you weren't expecting me to get one of the first ten thousand copies." She said with a smile.

"You… Seriously!?"

"I remember you telling me how much fun the beta test was, so I figured… Why not? Plus it's the first VRMMORPG. There's no way I'd miss out on a chance to get it."

The two laughed and left the store. They spent a while in a café talking and by the time they got to the point in their walk home where they had to separate, it was already 10:00pm.

"Looks like we managed to waste a lot of time." Hikaru said as she realized what time it was.

"Yeah. I don't usually stay out this late. My sister is probably worried about me."

"Sorry to keep you out so late." The girl said, a hint of red on her cheeks.

"Don't worry about it. I had fun." They both smiled. "I guess I'll see you in Aincrad then."

"Yeah. Look forward to it."

The two waved and then went their separate ways.

Hikaru sat on her bed, looking at the game sitting in front of her.

"Virtual reality… I wonder what it will be like…"

Her eyes shifted to the clock in her room. It was 11:25pm. There was still thirty five minutes before she could log in.

She stood and exited her room, walking down the hall. She knocked on the door to the room next to hers.

The door opened. A girl with the same colour hair, although a little lighter, and eyes as her opened the door. She was taller and had larger breasts.

"Hey, Onee-chan."

The girl, Kawata Rinko, smiled. The younger girl didn't talk to her that often. It was almost as if she was too shy to even talk to her older sister. Rinko had always hoped that that would pass. She wanted to be closer to her younger sister, but she didn't often get a chance to be with her.

"Come in." Rinko said happily. She let the girl in the room and the two sat at a small table that the girl had. "What's going on? You don't speak to me very often."

"S-Sorry…" Hikaru said looking down. "I just… I've… been busy…"

"Hmm…" The older girl shrugged. "Well, that's fine. Does that mean you wanted something?"

"Mmm…" She was hesitating whether or not to tell the girl.

"Come on. It's fine. You can tell me anything. We are sisters."

That didn't really seem to encourage the girl. However, it seemed to lighten the tense feeling that she had. It wasn't that she disliked her older sister or anything. It was just that after her sister entered High School, she always thought she would just be bothering her if she interrupted her when she was working.

"Well… Um…" Hikaru blushed and she looked away. "Have you… um… ever… been… in love before?"

For a while, her sister just stared at her. Then she got up and walked over to her, sitting next to her, and gave her a big hug.

"Ah! Onee-chan has been waiting so long to hear that question! This means that you like somebody! I was wondering if you were going to wait until High School to start dating and I thought by the time you actually started I would have moved out and I would have to talk to you on the phone, but I'm so glad that you fell in love while I was here!"

The girl smiled and pushed her off gently.

"Come on, Onee-chan. That's embarrassing."

"There's nothing embarrassing about hugging your sister."

"I was talking about the way you're talking about my first love."

Rinko smiled happily.

"So it is your first love then?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"Tell me all about him."

"His name is Kirigaya Kazuto." Hikaru said. "He's a great guy. He doesn't care about school that much, though. It's not like he's failing or anything though. He gets average grades. I've known him for a long time. We've been friends since our first year of middle school. I'm a little afraid that he only thinks of me as a friend, though. Just today, I told him that I'm an MMO gamer. He's the only person from school that I've told. He's a gamer too. He plays a lot of MMOs. I'm hoping we'll get to play them together a lot."

Rinko patiently listened as her sister went on and on about what a great guy Kazuto was.

After about thirty minutes of her talking, she suddenly realized that she had been the only one talking and stopped, blushing.

The girl who was listening giggled.

"It seems like you really like this boy."

"Yeah… But I don't know what to do."

Hikaru had never dated anyone before. She had been confessed to twice in middle school and three times in junior high, but she had turned them down. She had gone to her sister because she knew her sister had dated guys before.

"You can start by confessing to him."

"W-what!? I can't just confess to him!"

"I don't see why not. You've known him for a long time. You're already close to him. I don't think he would turn you down anyways. You're cute and sweet."

Rinko looked at the time.

"It's this late already? We should continue this another time. I have some important work to do tonight."

Hikaru looked too.

It was 11:58pm.

"Ah! I have to go too!" She gave her sister and hug then ran to the door. "Thanks for the advice, Onee-chan!" She ran out.

She quickly went into her room and took out her Nerve Gear. She put her copy of Sword Art Online into the machine and laid back. The Nerve Gear covered her head, so it felt like something from an anime set in the future.

The time was displayed in the upper right hand corner of the visor that extended from the helmet, over her eyes.

The time changed to 12:00am.

"Link Start."

* * *

><p>Kazuto looked at the time displayed on his Nerve Gear. He was lying in bed, waiting for the time to change.<p>

It turned to 12:00am.

"Link Start."

His vision went black for a moment. Then he saw a stream of colours. A display asked him to confirm the language and he chose Japanese. Then a log in screen came up. He confirmed his username: Kirito. Then he entered his password.

A message said "Welcome to Sword Art Online".

Then there was a flash of white.

When the light cleared, he was standing in a plaza. It was in the style of a plaza from the 1400s. Various buildings in the same style surrounded it. Four wide pathways led north, south, east, and west from the plaza and out into the city.

Kazuto looked at his hands. He had dark bluish-black fingerless gloves on. He looked up. There were hundreds of people walking around and even more appearing in flashes of white.

In the upper left hand part of his vision he there was a green bar with a name under it. The name said "Kirito". It was his HP bar.

"It feels good to be back." He said, smiling.

His avatar had dark blue hair. It was longer in the front on the right, where it went down to his chin. He had dark blue eyes and wore a set of beginners armour which consisted of a small piece of plate mail and knee and elbow guards. He was wearing a long sleeve blue shirt underneath the plate mail and had long brown pants on.

Kirito looked around then took off in a direction, running down a road. He turned and ran down a side road. He knew a good weapons dealer from the beta that could get him some good weapons early game that didn't have particularly high stat requirements.

After making a quick stop at the shop, he exited the ≪Starting City≫with a new straight sword. Not too many people were outside the town yet, so he was free to train in the fields surrounding it. The only things that spawned close though were ≪Boars≫. They were the lowest level monsters in the game, similar to slimes in other RPGs.

One ≪Boar≫ran at him. He drew his sword from the scabbard on his back. It was a one-handed sword which he held in his right hand. As it charged him, he side stepped it and slashed at its side. A glowing pink slash mark appeared on the monster's body to indicate exactly where he had hit it. He could see its HP bar go down halfway.

Luckily, the system assisted players with dodging. It also assisted them with sword movement to an extent.

Unlike most RPGs, Sword Art Online does not have magic. Instead it has ≪Sword Skills≫.

The ≪Boar≫ rushed him. He used his sword to knock it back, then drew his sword back. The blade glowed blue. He struck forward with it. His body shot forward, his sword tearing through the enemy. As he came to a stop, the light fading from his blade, he looked back. The monster's HP bar went down the rest of the way and it glowed then exploded into glowing shards which dispersed.

Kirito swung his sword to his side and sheathed it.

A small box appeared in front of him showing him how much experience he gained. He closed the box.

"Just as easy as I remember."

"Agh!"

He looked to the side as he heard a man grunt.

The man was around twenty four with red hair and a red headband. He wore beginners armour as well and carried a ≪Katana≫ instead of a straight sword like the boy.

He had been knocked down by the ≪Boar≫ that he had attacked. Just as he got up, the monster started to charge him.

"Damn it!" He yelled.

The man turned and prepared to take the hit, but it never came.

He saw a flash of blue and the monster was destroyed.

A boy stood to the side of where it was, holding a straight sword.

Kirito turned and looked at the man.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." The man straightened up and held his hand out. The boy hesitated but grabbed his hand. "Klein."

"Kirito." They shook hands.

"Thanks for saving me." Klein said as they released hands. "This is the first time I've played a VRMMORPG. It's harder than I thought."

"It was nothing. Trust me. You'll get used to it pretty quickly."

"Quickly, huh?" He thought for a second. "Hey, why don't you help me? I'll give you all the money I get from training."

Kirito waved his hands in front of him for a second.

"That's not necessary. I'll train you for free. Besides, it won't take so long that you'll make that much money. If you're a quick learner it'll probably only take a couple of hours."

He pointed at one of the many ≪Boars≫ wandering around.

"So… What do I do?"

"Well, first of all, SAO does not have magic. So we have to use ≪Sword Skills≫ instead. These are abilities that allow us to enhance our movement, speed, damage, etc. Of course, the skills vary by which type of weapon you choose to use. I use a straight sword. You use a ≪Katana≫. We both have the basic skill ≪Flash≫. You've played other RPGs, right?"

"Yeah. Isn't that usually a skill that lets you 'flash' a short distance away?" Klein said, thinking.

"Exactly. However, in SAO, it's a skill that makes your body shoot forward, through your target, dealing damage as you go. It's useful for quickly finishing a target, or hitting multiple targets at once. Triggering it is all in the motion. I'll show you."

* * *

><p>Hikaru looked around. After she had logged in, everybody had dispersed, running to explore the city or to leave.<p>

"I wonder where Kazuto-chan is…" She said, looking around. "I should've asked him what his username is. Well, that can wait until tomorrow."

Her avatar had long lavender hair and eyes the same colour. She wore the basic armour for girls. She had a long-sleeve lavender shirt on underneath and gray pants.

After a quick scouting of the town, she decided to buy a spiked whip, which cost most of her money. She bought two daggers as backup weapons and that was all she had enough col for.

She exited the town, heading to the East. The fields around the town were already full of players trying to quickly gain a few levels.

"I expected something like this…" Instead she decided to go to the forest. The monsters in the forest were slightly higher levels than the ones in the fields, but that just meant that she could get experience quicker.

After only a few minutes in the forest, a wasp the size of her hand flew at her.

She dodged to the side and swung her whip expertly. The spikes on the end of the whip hit the wasp and flew into a tree before shattering into shards of light.

"That was easy." She walked around the tree that the wasp had come from and she stopped.

A wasp nest covered a large tree. Wasps swarmed around it. As if their AI updated when she got near, they all turned to her and started to fly at her.

"Shit!"

With amazing reflexes that were helped by the game's engine, she started to dodge, swinging her whip in wide arcs, destroying twenty at a time.

Then they suddenly stopped. From the trees came a huge wasp, easily twice her size.

A health bar appeared above it and a name.

≪Wasp Queen≫.

"Fuck!" She dodged as it shot a stinger at her.

She made a break for it, running towards the fields. Just as she ran out onto the field, she turned. A tree was knocked down as the wasp flew out of the forest.

That drew the attention of the twenty or so players that were close enough to notice.

Hikaru swung her ship around and hit the wasp. It didn't do much damage.

She continued to dodge as it shot stingers at her. The people in the field started to panic and run as the stingers came close to hitting some of them.

The girl stepped back and her foot caught a rock. She started to fall and could see the wasp shoot a stinger at her.

"Dammit…"

"Not today."

A boy stepped in front of her. He was holding a straight sword and swung it knocking the stinger away.

He swung around and grabbed her hand with his free hand and pulled her back up. The boy had bluish-black hair that was longer on the right side.

"Are you okay?" He asked, letting go of her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks."

"No problem. Wait here."

He turned back towards the wasp and dashed forward. It shot stingers at him, but he dodged them.

The boy made it look as if he was a veteran VRMMOPRG player.

He got up close and delivered a devastating strike to its side. Then he dodged into a roll as a stinger was shot at him. He came out of the room in a sprint, turning around quickly and making his way back to the enemy. It shot several more stingers at him, but he dodged them easily. Then as he got up close he recognized his mistake. Its stinger started glowing and it shot something like a laser at him.

Luckily, the boy was no amateur. He threw his body to one side, rolled, got on his feet and struck forward. He let his momentum carry him forward, past the enemy and he slashed again.

The enemy glowed, then shattered into shards of light that disappeared.

"If that was an actual boss and not just a miniboss, it might have been a problem." He said. "Luckily, it has a predictable AI pattern and its attacks are easy to dodge." He sheathed his sword.

"Thank you." Hikaru said, walking up to him. "I'm sorry that you had to go through the trouble for me."

"It's no problem. I'm guessing you don't play MMOs that often?"

"I do! It's just that I didn't expect them to put a miniboss in a forest that's so close to the beginning town."

"Most players wouldn't wander so deep in the forest."

"I guess I'm more adventurous then most players then."

The boy sighed.

"You shouldn't take unnecessary risks."

Hikaru held out her hand.

"I'm Suzuka." She said, using her character's name.

The boy grabbed her hand.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kirito."

* * *

><p>"Kirito!"<p>

The boy blinked a couple of times.

"Wha… Right!"

He looked at a girl across from him. She was a girl he had met on his first day stuck in the game.

"Together!" She yelled.

"Right!" Kirito said.

He ran in, his one-handed straight sword trailing behind him.

The girl, Suzuka, ran next to him.

They were in the boss fight of the sixth floor. The boss was large, about five times the size of any of them. It was still humanoid in shape though. A cloak covered its face and all that could be seen were two glowing red eyes under its hood. Two bony hands stuck out of the cloak and they both grasped a halberd that was easily double the size of any of the players.

Kirito moved in quickly. The boss, ≪The Executioner≫, swung its halberd horizontally, the length of the weapon making it impossible to dodge to either side. The boy wouldn't be taken down by something like that, however. He placed his hand on the flat of the blade as it came at him. He pushed and flipped straight over the weapon, coming in range to attack.

The boy pulled his blade up, the pommel against his chest. The weapon was enveloped in a green light. To everybody looking, he turned into a blur as he appeared on the other side of the boss, a green line tracing to his sword. He turned and appeared again on the other side. This repeated twice more until the boy finally turned, his sword glowing blue and stabbing straight into his enemy.

The boss brought its weapons around and swung.

"Switch!" Kirito yelled. He swung his blade down and hit the halberd, slamming the blade into the ground, stopping its momentum. Then he jumped back as Suzuka ran in. She jumped on the blade and ran up it. As she reached the top, she kicked off and flew into the air above the boss. Her whip glowed yellow as she let the length of it drop out. She turned her body so she was falling headfirst towards the enemy. With precise movements, she swung her whip out and retracted it at lightning speed several times.

She landed in front of the boss, turned and swung out her whip in an arc, brought it back, turned around and swung it from the opposite side, using the same arc attack.

The boss brought up its halberd again and swung it down.

"Now!" Suzuka yelled.

Kirito ran in. The girl swung her whip. It wrapped around the mid piece of the halberd and she pulled as hard as she could. It barely staggered the enemy, but it did enough. The boy ran in and brought his sword above his head, his blade facing opposite his enemy. It glowed a deep red. He spun, a clean slice coming through, then reversed his motion, swinging from the other way, then reversed a third time, this time moving past the boss, bringing his sword through it. The HP bar of the boss reached zero.

The boss shimmered, then shattered into what looked like various coloured pieces of glass which faded.

A box popped up in front of Kirito.

_Congratulations! You have received the Last Hit bonus!_

_Item acquired: _≪Cloak of The Rogue≫.

He looked over the experience he received and nodded, content.

He stuck out his index and middle finger on his right hand and swept his hand vertically in the air. His menu popped open. He went through his items until he found the item he had received. He clicked on it and selected Equip.

A black cloak appeared on the boy. It fell to his ankles and equipped fingerless gloves that were a part of it. The boy looked at the collar that came up just enough to hide his mouth if he leaned his head forward a little.

"Fits well." Kirito said with a smile. He swung his sword to the side, flipped it over, and sheathed it.

A cheering went through the boss room.

"Good job." Suzuka said, walking up to him.

"I should say the same to you." The boy replied. "Whips are one of the hardest weapons to use in the game, but you have great control with it."

"We have been here for over a month." The girl said, laughing. "I've been practicing a lot."

Kirito smiled.

It had been just over a month since they had been trapped in Sword Art Online. All ten thousand players who got the game on the first day could not escape. There was no logout button and if anybody tried to remove the NerveGear from the outside world, the person's brain would be fried by the machine.

"I'm going to go back to that village we passed by on the way here and get some supplies." The girl said. "What are you going to do?"

Kirito looked around for a second.

"I need to find a friend I made on the first floor. It looks like she wasn't able to make it to this boss fight. She must have got caught up in some side dungeon. I'll wait for her on the next floor. I'm sure she'll be eager to come."

"Okay. I'll see you at the next boss fight." The girl turned and walked away, heading back out of the dungeon where the majority of the players who had been at the boss fight were headed.

"Hey." Klein greeted the boy. "Good job out there."

"Yeah. I may have showed up late, but I managed to get in the last few hits, so I suppose I didn't do too bad."

"More like you did great." The man said. "You executed those swords skills in quick succession. You didn't miss a beat."

"Suzuka helped by keeping the boss busy the last few hits." The boy said with a laugh. "Anyways, I'm going up to the next floor. Feel like coming?"

"I have to go back and meet up with some friends." Klein said. "I'll definitely see you up there though. I'll buy you a drink or something."

Both of them laughed.

"Later." Kirito said.

They shook hands.

"Later." Klein said and turned to walk back the way he had come in the room.

Kirito opened the door to the next floor, activating the transport gate in the main town that would allow people to transport from the floor below them to the next.

"Over a month and we're at the seventh floor." Kirito muttered as he stepped out. He could see a town in the distance. "It's only going to get harder from here on out. I wonder… Just how long is it going to take us to make it to floor 100?"

The floor appeared to be a desert. The sun shone bright above the boy and he could feel the sand shifting under his shoes with each step he took. He saw a town in the distance, the structure of the buildings looked much different from the last floor's.

He opened his menu and selected his friends list. It was relatively empty. He clicked on the name Asuna and chose to send a message.

_I'm on the next floor. Meet me at the town straight out of the door. I'll be wandering around._

He sent the message and closed his menu.

Shoving his hands in the pockets of his newly-acquired cloak, he started walking towards the town.

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><p><strong>Let me start with one things first of all. As many of you probably noticed, I skipped the whole intro where they get stuck in the game. I hate reading that in every single fic I read and I'm sure a lot of you do as well. That's why I skipped straight to the sixth floor boss battle.<strong>

**I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you next time.**


	2. Floor Seven - Deserted

**Hello everybody. Welcome to the next chapter of Number One.**

**Sorry that I haven't been updating frequently. I've been trying to improve my rather lackluster grades in some subjects and I have my semester exams this week, so I haven't found much time for writing.**

**Don't fret though, I'll continue to update as much as possible.**

**Also, I have another project that I'm going to start working on when I have more time. I'll divide my time between this story and that one. I hope you guys will enjoy it.**

**Anyways, relax and enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

><p>"It's hot." Kirito muttered.<p>

He was laying on a bench beside a well in the middle of the desert. There was no civilization in view. He had his arm over his eyes to block the sunlight.

"It's only natural, isn't it?" A girl with orange-brownish hair commented. Her hazel eyes looked at boy and she sighed. "We should really get a move on. We were lucky to find this well, but the longer we stay out here, the worse it's going to get.

The boy sat up. He reached a hand down in the well and brought up some water. He drank it and stood.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's get going. The faster we find the boss room, the faster we can be off this floor."

The two headed out. They didn't really have any direction, so they just wandered through the desert, making sure that they didn't turn around and start going the wrong way.

"So, Asuna." Kirito said, trying to get rid of the awkward silence between them. "What got you into MMOs?"

The girl looked like she wanted to say something, but kept quiet.

"Sorry, I guess discussing personal things isn't the best."

"No, it's just…" She sighed. "Never mind. Let's just keep moving."

Kirito sighed. He had tried to start a conversation to avoid the awkwardness, but he had just made it more awkward.

The trek through the desert was becoming cumbersome. They were both tired and the heat from the sun above them didn't help.

"Look." Kirito said, pointing to their right. There was a small hill of sand and a cave opening was visible on the side. "Let's go in there."

"Do you think that could be where the boss room is?"

"I doubt it. I could use a break from this heat, though."

The girl shrugged. She wasn't going to argue getting a break from the trek.

They made their way over to the cave. The cave entrance was about a meter wide, but it got larger inside. The cave wasn't long though. It ended in a wall only a few meters in.

The two sat down.

"I wonder what Kayaba was thinking when he made a floor like this." Asuna said. She went into her inventory and made a flask of water appear in front of her. She took a long sip from it, a drop of water rolling down her chin and neck.

Kirito's eyes followed it down to her breasts where it hit her red shirt. He looked away as soon as the girl stopped drinking.

"It makes perfect sense." The boy said. "It's to build our endurance. If we can stand an extreme environment like this, then we'll have an easier time later on." The boy leaned back against the wall. "The only thing I don't like about it is that because it's so hot, there are not many people who go exploring. The less people looking, the longer it's going to take to find the boss room and get to the next floor."

He put his hands down and his right hand pressed down on a small rock. The rock went into the ground a little and the two could hear a click.

The cave started rumbling.

"What did you do?" Asuna asked, looking at him.

"I don't know."

The two stood up, hands on their swords.

The wall that made up the back of the cave pressed in and slowly rose up, revealing a staircase leading into darkness.

They looked at each other and nodded. The two slowly descended the staircase, taking it one step at a time, wary of any possible traps, their swords drawn.

Kirito took a torch from his inventory and lit it by hitting his sword against the stone of the steps to create sparks.

The light helped, but they didn't run into any traps.

They reached the bottom of the stairs. They led to an archway that opened into a large stone room. It looked like the inside of a pyramid.

The two cautiously walked inside. Statues of strange humanoids with eagle heads were placed around the walls. A doorway was on the opposite side from where they came in. Kirito and Asuna took it slowly, but as soon as they reached the middle of the room, they realized their mistake.

The doorways closed, large stones lowering and blocking them.

"Shit!" Kirito yelled.

The statues glowed red for a second before turning from stone to living being. They all held spears and started charging the two. They were surrounded.

"Asuna." Kirito said, getting her attention. "Your weapon is made for fast attacking." He said, indicating her rapier. "We'll focus on pushing one side at a time. Stay out of reach of the spears on your side. I'll parry and you'll follow through with the riposte."

"Got it." She said, nodding.

"Now!"

Kirito dashed forward, the girl turning and running behind him.

They charged a pair of them first. Two spears struck out , one aimed at the boy's chest and the other at his throat. He brought his sword up and hit the first spear up. The second enemy adjusted its spear to stab lower, preventing him from repeating the same method he had used on the first. The boy was prepared for that. He flipped his sword out and over the spear he had knocked up, bringing it back to his side and out immediately, smacking the spear to the side.

"Asuna!"

Asuna dashed to his side from behind him. Her sword glowed green. Her hand and sword turned into a blur as she struck several times at both of the creatures. She jumped back.

Kirito followed through on her attack. He stabbed through one of the enemies. It exploded into shards of light. Then he turned a full 360 degrees, bringing his sword back around and slicing straight through the second enemy, making it burst into shards of light just as the first had.

"Great!" The girl said.

"Asuna! Watch out!"

She turned around to see a spear less than an inch from her face.

Then she saw a sword as the boy's split second timing allowed him to hit the spear away. He followed through with two diagonal strikes and a stab.

Asuna quickly recovered. She ran out to the side and forward, delivering three quick stabs, destroying the enemy.

Kirito turned, putting them back-to-back.

"This isn't good. There's more than I thought." He said.

Around fifty of the enemies were coming towards them, all brandishing the spears.

"What do you want to do?"Asuna asked.

As the boy was about to respond, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. The door opposite of the one they came through was open.

"We're escaping." He said with a smirk. The enemies had formed a circle around them and were closing in quickly, their spears pointed at the two. "Jump."

"Wha-?"

"Jump!"

The boy's sword glowed a light green. Asuna jumped once and landed on the boy's shoulders then jumped again, higher into the air. Kirito swung his sword horizontally, sliding low and making a complete 360 turn, the force of which knocked all the enemies back a few feet.

Asuna landed next to him and he grabbed her hand, making a dash for the doorway.

They sliced their way through two enemies who were still staggered from the boy's attack.

Kirito stopped and brought his sword up just in time to knock away a spear that was thrown their way. They both jumped through the doorway, the large stone that made up the door falling in place behind them. It was pitch black.

"I don't suppose you have another torch?" Asuna asked the boy.

"No…" He put his hand on the right wall. "We'll just hug the right wall until we reach somewhere."

They did just that, slowly following along, swords drawn.

The girl jumped as the boy suddenly hit his sword on the wall, sparks flying.

"What the hell!?" She yelled, her voice echoing.

The boy hit his sword on the wall again, sparks flying out to the side and ahead of them.

"Wait…" He said. He hit it again. "Come on."

Finally he hit the wall again and a torch in a holder on the wall burst to life.

"A torch?" The girl smiled. "Good j-…" She was cut off as suddenly torches started bursting to life.

They were on a spiral staircase going down. Torches were placed every so often and they all lit after the boy lit the first one.

"Well… That works too." Kirito said.

They now walked side-by-side, still cautious with each turn around the staircase they made.

"Do you feel that?" The boy asked.

"Feel what?"

"A breeze. A light flow of air." He smiled. "We must be near the exit." He ran down the staircase, the girl following after him.

Asuna almost slammed into him as he stopped suddenly, having reached the bottom. They slowly walked through an archway into another large room, not much different from the other one. Torches lined the walls and they were all lit, so he could at least see better in this one.

In the middle of the room stood a large sphinx, facing their way. It was standing, not sitting like a traditional one.

The stone fell and slammed the archway shut.

The eyes of the sphinx glowed red and it took a step forward.

Three HP bars appeared near it and a boss name appeared. Kirito looked at the name.

≪Guardian Sphinx≫.

"A secret boss? Seriously?" Kirito asked, holding his sword back into his fighting position.

"SAO has bosses besides the floor ones?" Asuna asked, drawing back her rapier.

"Yeah. I encountered one on the first floor. I've heard of some of them before. I guess there's one on every floor and we were just unlucky enough to find the one on this one."

The sphinx shot forward and lifted one of its claws. The beast was easily three times the boy's size, but he wasn't deterred by that.

Bringing his sword up in his right hand, he took a step forward, sliding his blade along the beast's claw, managing to give just enough force to prevent the claw from knocking him back and wiping out his HP.

"Asuna, I'll distract it, so hit it from the side." He said, making sure the boss's agro was on him.

Asuna ran out to the side, circling around.

The beast jumped at Kirito, swiping with both of its claws in a downward slash. He jumped back, dodging, and slid as his feet touched the ground.

The girl ran up from behind, jumped, her sword glowing blue. Lightning fast, she stabbed the creature seven times, landed on its back and kicked off.

The beasts eyes glowed red as it shifted agro and it suddenly turned and jumped into the air after her.

"Asuna!"

Kirito's sword glowed a red the colour of blood. He threw his sword and it stuck into the beast.

"Sword Link." He said and dashed forward. Asuna raised her sword, but the beast knocked her to the ground and prepared to finish her off by landing on her with its claw.

Kirito didn't give it time. He ran to the wall, his speed greatly increased. He jumped on the wall and kicked off, shooting towards the boss. He reached it in a split second, grabbed his sword and, instead of pulling it out, pulled it forward, tearing through the beasts back, leaving a deep gash.

"Sword Link complete."

That was enough to shift its agro and it turned toward him mid-air and landed, missing the girl. Asuna got up and started drinking a healing potion.

The beast charged him, but the boy didn't hesitate. He dropped into a low stance and waited for it to get within range. Then he shot forward, under it, came out on the other side, and did a backflip, landing on the beasts back.

He lifted his sword and stabbed down, letting his sword sink in to the hilt. He looked at the boss's HP bar. It only had one HP bar and it was about halfway down.

"Asuna! We need to hit it with a big combo! It's weak to attacks that can get through it!" He had wondered why its HP bar drained so quickly. The deep gash he had made inflicted bleed damage and also did a massive amount of damage on its own. It was a secret boss and only on the seventh floor, so the boy didn't expect it to be too difficult.

"Right!"

The boy kicked off the beast, tearing his sword out and landing on his feet.

* * *

><p>Suzuka shifted her body to the side, avoiding a vertical swipe of a curved sword. She brought her whip around in a circle and grabbed the wrist of a ≪Mad Bandit≫. She pulled and the enemy staggered forward. That was all the time she needed.<p>

The girl released the enemy and swung her whip high in the air. It glowed red and she swung it back down, then diagonally up in the opposite direction, then swung it behind the enemy and brought it back, hitting it three times. The enemy glowed and burst into shards of light.

She calmly swung the whip once, and brought it back, the whip wrapping up. She attached it to the side of her skirt and sighed.

"These dungeons are getting more and more dangerous. This is only the seventh floor too." A quick glance at her HP bar showed she still had 3/4 of her health left.

"No need to waste a healing potion."

With that, she continued through the dark underground tunnel. The walls were sand and the top was rock.

She felt like if she made one mistake, the ceiling would cave in on her and that would be the end. Of course, in Sword Art Online, there was no room for mistakes. One death and everything was over.

"This is worse than trying to do a one life challenge of Persona." She mumbled.

A small opening was ahead of her. It looked like it had previously been a dead end and somebody have broken the wall open. There was a room on the other side. She carefully stepped through the opening, looking around.

There was a large room on the other side. Something that looked like a shrine sat against the back wall, two large lit pedestals on either side of an altar with a red cloth on it.

She detached her whip from her skirt and held it, looking around cautiously. It wouldn't be unlikely for the game to spawn a lot of enemies in a room like this.

Another step forward. Nothing happened. Another. Still nothing.

Relaxing some, but still staying on guard, Suzuka approached the altar. A dagger sat atop it. She picked it up, and turned it over, admiring the design. It wasn't Egyptian which seemed to be the theme of that floor, but rather something from the 1600s in the East. It had a smooth blade with an intricate black design on the hilt.

She tapped the weapon and a box popped up.

≪Retribution≫.

"Hm. I used whips, but I suppose it wouldn't be bad to have a side weapon." A sheath appeared on her skirt around her hip and she put the dagger in it.

She glanced around. There didn't seem to be any way to continue, so she took out a teleport crystal.

Holding it up, she spoke.

"Tele Veran."

Nothing happened.

"Tele Veran."

Again, nothing happened.

"Teleport crystals don't work here, huh? I guess I'm walking back."

She took a step forward and the ground opened beneath her.

"Wha-!?"

She fells straight in, too distracted to grab something to hold onto.

She plummeted twenty or so feet when she could see the bottom speeding towards her. The girl straightened herself out and put her foot against one of the walls and pushed off, then did the same against the other and continued doing this until she reached the opening.

Suzuka landed without a scratch.

"What the hell…?"

A quick look around revealed nothing to her. She was in an empty room with one doorway leading out.

"Dammit!"

In frustration, she kicked open the door and walked through. It led her through a tunnel. She could hear the sounds of battle up ahead.

Her steps sped up, the sound echoing around the small tunnel. She reached a dead end. There was a crack in the wall, allowing her to see through to the other side.

"… Kirito?"

What she saw through the crack was a black-haired boy that she had come to know well and a girl with light brown hair that she had never seen before.

They were fighting… a boss?

Kirito slid under a swipe of the boss's claw and slashed several times at the back of its leg before dashing out past it.

"Asuna, now!"

"Right!"

The girl jumped in the air, her rapier glowing purple.

She stabbed several times extremely quickly at the beast's face. Then she kicked off of it, landed on the ground and dashed forward, hitting it in the leg with a powerful blow, stumbling it.

Kirito came up around the other side. He jumped, twisting his body in air to turn over, his sword glowing a light blue. As he fell toward the beast, he swept his sword out to one side then swiped six times across the back of its neck before finally straightening himself out to land on the beast.

He raised his sword and it glowed red. Then he stabbed it down into the boss's neck.

The ≪Guardian Sphinx≫ glowed and burst into shards of light.

The boy landed on his feet.

A message popped up, telling him how much experience he had received.

"Ah…" If only there was a last hit bonus on secret bosses. "That was tiring."

The boy glanced up at his HP bar. It was less than halfway down. He drank a health potion and threw away the bottle. It shattered into shards of light when it hit the ground.

"Good work." Asuna said with a smile.

They both sheathed their weapons.

"Kirito!"

"Huh?"

The boy looked around.

"Kirito!"

A voice was calling his name, but he didn't know where from.

"Do you hear that?" He asked the girl next to him.

"Yeah." She was looking around as well.

"Kirito! Over here!"

They both turned to look at the wall on one side of the room. The two approached it slowly and as they got closer, they could see a crack in it.

Kirito walked up to it.

"Hello?"

"Kirito. It's me, Suzuka."

"Suzuka? What are you doing here?"

"I was exploring a dungeon and fell into a trap. Do you see any way to open the wall up or something? Maybe a lever or button?"

"No…" He said, taking a quick look around. "Here. Stand back."

The girl backed up several feet, not knowing what the boy was planning.

Kirito drew his sword back. It glowed red and he swung it forward in a vertical slash that broke open the weak wall.

The girl stepped through and smiled.

"Thanks for that."

"Yeah." He looked at Asuna. "This is Suzuka. She's a friend of mine." Then he looked at the other girl. "This is Asuna. I'm partying with her right now."

"Nice to meet you." Asuna said.

"Same."

"I guess we should get out of here now." The boy said.

As if responding to his voice, a stone lifted on the opposite side of the room then where they came in, revealing a doorway.

"Yeah. We need to resupply." Asuna said.

The three went through the newly opened tunnel, which led to a small opening in the side of a hill.

"Huh?"

They came out into a small oasis. A pond of water five feet across was surrounded by palm trees. The three looked around after they came out.

"This is… relaxing." The boy said with a smile. He knelt by the pond and splashed some water into his face. "Ah, that feels good."

The girls did the same, wiping away the sweat.

They stood and walked around the oasis, looking out the other side. In front of them was just desert as far as the eye could see. There was no civilization.

"How are we supposed to find are way back?" Asuna asked, looking around. "Before, I knew what direction we were going in, but now I'm not so sure."

Kirito pointed up.

"That's easy. The sun sets in the west. We left at sunrise and the sun was behind us. So it's setting in the opposite direction. We just need to head east."

"Oh, that's smart." Asuna said. "I can't believe I didn't think of that."

The three made their way back. They could see the town in the distance before sunset.

"I never asked," Asuna said. "But what was that move you used earlier?"

"What are you talking about?" Kirito asked.

"I think you called it 'Sword Link'?"

"Eh." The boy looked forward and laughed some. "Oh, that. It's nothing really. It's just a skill that popped onto my skill list while we were on floor five."

"What? Just randomly?"

"Yeah. I didn't notice it until I went to check through my stats."

"Are you the only person who has the skill then?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't seen anybody else use it or anything similar yet. However, there are a lot of people in Sword Art Online, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were others who have it and we just haven't seen them use it yet."

"I suppose."

"Besides," The boy said. "I'm sure Sword Art Online has a lot of secrets to show us."

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. The next one will be out as soon as I can put it out.<strong>**  
><strong>

**I do have a few ending notes, however.**

**First of all, I will NOT be putting every floor from here on out in a chapter or multiple chapters. I will have to skip some. In fact, I'll probably end up skipping plenty between this floor and floor 50. I hope to really start focusing on floors later, giving them intricate designs as opposed to the limited designs we see in the novels.**

**There will be several floors between this floor and floor 50 that I will want to focus on though. Also, keep in mind that this is an AU. I might change floors that already have designs. I simply kept floor 1 as it was because it seemed appropriate to keep it that way.**

**Anyways, I hoep you guys enjoyed the chapter.**

**Be seeing you.**


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